How to write a Common App personal essay regarding my time at a British school?

I'm an American who went to a British boarding/day school and am wondering how I should effectively write my common app personal essay? Should it be like a narrative, going from my first day to my last day at that school? Or should it highlight certain aspects or anecdotes that show growth in my character? Should it include detailed, descriptive, and creative language or should it be more formal. It is okay to add quotes (not that famous people have said, but that my friends or someone at the school said to me)? Is it okay to have contractions (can't, don't, etc)? Also, this experience happened during middle school, not high school. Is that okay to do for a college admissions essay? Thank you for your help!

Theres no ultimate rule as for what is allowed and what is not. Adding quotes or short dialogues is fine. That it happened during middle school is fine too, some students even write about things that happened to them when they were 6 years old. However I wouldn't do like a narrative. Try to pick out one aspect or ancedote that can be seen as a symbol for your time there

First of all, it doesn't matter whether you spent your middle or high school in Britain as long as it had a significant impact on you.Secondly, i don't believe you can narrate your entire middle school experience in as small a word limit as 500 words.Thus you should probably be better off recounting those specific instances and experiences that affected you the greatest.Feel free to include anecdotes and quotes from your friends( these will actually make your essay more real and give a more clear account of your character and personality). However, i strongly advise against using contractions of any sort in the essay . And, to answer your final query, the essay shouldn't read like a formal letter application .The adcoms want to hear you talk and know about your personality...you can't do this and sound ultra-formal at the same time.However, be careful not to start treating the adcoms as you would your best friend...try and stay somewhere between these two extremes...GOOD LUCK

please look over my commonapp ideas and suggest the best one...